Good words to sit with
About a year ago, I attempted yoga. Everyone talks about the benefits to your body, mind, and spirit. Goodness knows I needed healing in all three! After trying several online yoga instructors, I came to the conclusion that yoga is not for me. It’s. so. boring. Breathe in, breathe out. Sit quietly. Contort my body into an unnatural pose and hold for 5 hours. Breathe in. Breath out. Sit quietly. I was finding myself wanting to crawl back into bed more than finding my inner peace.
It might seem odd then, that last week I decided to give meditation a try. Mainly I did it because I realized that my time of meditation is whatever I want it to be. Although basically it’s sit quietly, breathe in, hold, and breathe out. Yup, that very practice which threw me off yoga is what I’m attempting to do again. But this time it’s different.
While working on the Life Beyond Loss Retreat, I discovered meditating just 5-10 minutes a day helps improve, among other things, empathy, immunity, resilience, and self-compassion. When I read about the powerful impact it has on our grey matter, my mind was blown. (pun intended… maybe) I knew this was something we needed to be intentional about at the retreat. But, I can’t preach what I don’t practice, so…how it’s going with me?
Pretty decent, if you count me cutting my meditation short so I could write these thoughts down. (My meditations tend to be done in smaller chunks of time anyway) But, what drove me here is something I read in The Bible Project’s article about Jesus’ words in Matthew 6: 31-34. I have breathed in and breathed out the words since reading them…
God’s got us. We are safe, and we are loved.
As I look over my prayer list of everything that has yet to be settled after some big losses and changes in my life, I need these words to be true. And so I am repeating them and breathing, over and over.
Breathe in … God’s got us.
Hold breathe … We are safe,
Breathe out … and we are loved.
God’s got us. God’s got me. God’s got my children. God’s got my husband. God’s got my fears. God’s got these changes.
God’s got our world. God’s got the broken. God’s got the hopeless. God’s got all who grieve. God’s got the forgotten.
God’s. got. us.
We are safe,
and we are loved.
I think these are going to be my breaths for awhile. I need their peace and assurance that we are not facing life on our own. What is may not, or cannot, change.
But we are not alone.
Denise
To learn more about what The Bible Project has to say about Matthew 6: 31-34, you can go to their website and spend time with Playlist 40, Abundance and Provision in the Kingdom. It is part of their Sermon on the Mount series.
